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Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: November 18, 1937
Name: George C. Neeley
Post Office: Cordell, Oklahoma
Residence address: 416 S. Market St.
Date of Birth: November 18, 1894
Place of Birth: Wise County, Texas
Father: Jesse  Neeley
Place of Birth: Tennessee
Information on father: Farmer
Mother: Mandy Johnson
Place of birth: Tennessee
Information on mother: Housewife
Field Worker: Ida B. Leakford
Interview  #9250 pg 212-214

I was born in Wise County Texas November 18, 1894. When I was about three or four years old I moved with my Mother and Dad to the Chickasaw Nation. From the Chicka-saw Nation we came to Washita County Oklahoma in 1893. We came in three covered wagons and located two miles west of the present town of Cordell. When we came here, this country was made up of sage grass, wolves and Indians; there were no houses and hardly anyone was living here.

The provisions we got were freighted from El Reno and Weatherford. These supplies were food, farming tools, fuel, and clothes. Sometimes we would pick up bones and sell them to buy some of our things with, such as food and clothes. When we would run short of fuel we would burn corn and cow chips.

We gritted our own cornmeal out of keffir corn and made corn for our breads. We had our own hogs and chickens, so we had our meat & eggs. We also ate cottage cheese & butter.

We dug a well on our place and the water was so “ ??ppy” [unreadable] that we could not drink it so we hauled our water from the creek and boiled it.

We lived in a dugout and there were ten in the family to live in it.

We raised mostly feed? [food] and corn, and very little cotton. Corn brought 18 cents a bushel, cotton, 4 cents a pound and keffir corn from 10 to 12 cents a bushel. We farmed with horses and sod rock plows and the first years we were here we farmed 40 acres of land and then each year we gradually spread out. We farmed the land where Cordell is now for three years. The land belonged to Andrew JOHNSON on the south, J. C. HERREL on the north and “Plan?” BOYD on the west; Mr. Boyd's home was where the widow of Pastor B. W. BAKES now lives.

We made great friends with the Indian's. I have gone to several of the Indian war dances and festivals. These were held at the Washita River and at Seger? Colony which is now called Colony. The Indians would sit in a ring and smoke the Peace Pipe and have their pow-pow dances.

One pair of shoes would last us a year and we would only buy our shoes in the winter time.

My mother would make all of our clothes; they were made of jeans cloth and old cotton sacks. The girls dresses were made of Calico and cotton materials. The boys would only get one suit a year. Our shirts were made straight, also the pants, and they buttoned onto the shirts.

Our schools were held in sod houses and in dugouts; we had to sit on benches and we didn't have certain places to sit and had no desks to write.

 Our churches were in the same dugout as our schools were and we walked three miles to school and church and sometimes a group of people would go in wagons twenty to thirty miles to church? and singing.
 

**NOTE this ?[  ] means I couldn't read what was on the film***
Some of George's siblings that have been found
1. Nathaniel Neeley – 8/21/1871  Van Buren, Crawford Co. AR
2. Nellie Neeley – 3/1879 – Motley TX
3. Henry Neeley – 7/1881 – Motley TX
4. Edward C. Neeley – 10/1883 – Motley TX
5. George Neeley – 2/1886 –Wise County TX
6. Loucrettia Neeley --10/1888 – Motley TX
7. William Neeley – 12/1889 – TX
8. Rosie Neeley -  7/1898 – Dill City, Washita County OK
9. Dewey Neeley – ca 1899 Dill City, Washita County OK
10.  Mary Della Neeley – 1/24/1899 Washita County OK

Note; Alice Neeley married Edward Charles Neeley her cousin so George is her cousin & brother-in-law. Her sister Rachel Neeley married,  Nathaniel Neeley their cousins which make them all double cousins. Their father William Wallace Neeley is Jesse Neeley's brother, father of George C. Neeley.

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Pauline Phelps, May 1999.